


A Little Switch to the Head

by YaminoTenshi202



Series: Godless [1]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-21
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-15 17:22:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/852072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YaminoTenshi202/pseuds/YaminoTenshi202
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For day 3 of Blackice Week - Role Reversal</p><p>What was his purpose? Why wasn’t he visible to children, adults, anyone? The first time he threw a temper tantrum, the Easter Bunny was furious with him and chastised him greatly…</p><p>Why?</p><p>Why was he even here to begin with? If the Moon offered no answers…</p><p>He could make them believe.</p><p>But what would be the point without –</p><p>---<br/>Update 26 Sept 2013: This has been turned into a series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Don't start something...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The Black Ice Fandom](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=The+Black+Ice+Fandom).



> This was originally posted on my tumblr: unchangeablexangel

What was his purpose? Why wasn’t he visible to children, adults,  _anyone_? The first time he threw a temper tantrum, the Easter Bunny was furious with him and chastised him greatly…

Why?

Why was he even here to begin with? If the Moon offered no answers…

He could  _make_  them believe.

But what would be the point without –

* * *

Pitch Black sat in his lair, watching the small Fearlings and Nightmare Men do their jobs in earnest. Elicit a certain fear over here and there, he was believed in by few, but the fear that the human population emanated from their bodies naturally kept him alive. Not as powerful as he used to be, but certainly strong enough to keep the fear in the world alive, keep everyone on their toes and wary of the dangers of the world. A small sacrifice to keep the children safe.

There was a small whisper among his shadows and then strange lights upon his globe.

‘What?’ he wondered aloud, approaching his globe. He blinked as a small movement caught the corner of his eye. He turned and saw the Tooth Faerie approaching, a look of apprehension and anticipation on her face.

‘Pitch!’ she cried out. ‘We have to go!’

‘Go where, Toothiana?’ he asked, before seeing some of her feathers. They were raggedy looking, some dripping with water. She seemed tired and he reached out for her hand. She grasped at it and yelped as they went through the shadows.

* * *

The faeries couldn’t fly, the snow that began to cover the world impeding their movement. Lights began to disappear on the globe, but no one could find the source of this loss. Whatever spirit was causing this, he was doing it with his advantage of being hidden in the elements. The Sneguroschka denied all involvement, worrying over her little Siberian winters in the East and North. The Snow God in Japan shook his head and frowned, giving a silent rebuke to the spirit causing this.

‘Maybe it’s one of the spirits from the Western part of the world?’ Tooth supplied.

‘There aren’t many…’ North frowned, trailing off. Pitch heard a sense of knowing in his voice.

‘Jack Frost.’ Bunnymund growled out the name. Pitch was familiar with the name. Jack Frost appeared about 300 years ago in the British Colonies, what was currently the United States. Spirits often spoke ill of him, complaining of his character and methods. Bunny himself had a hard-set grudge because of a blizzard in 1968 on Easter Sunday.

* * *

In Punjam Hy Loo, ice had decorated all of the lovely structures therein. The little boxes of teeth that belonged to children fell, and many of them scattered into the Wind. Not many were taken, but the little Faeries that were still able to fly, despite the cold, were few and were guarding the remaining boxes with fervour. None could go to collect the teeth that had been placed under pillows tonight.

Jack Frost stood on one of the high rises of the palace, his staff held in firm grip in case the Guardians attempted to attack him.

‘Why are you doing this?’ North inquired, wanting to know why this young spirit, who was less than half of any of their ages, was causing so much mischief.

‘Maybe I want what you have. To be believed in.’

The boy, from what Pitch was understanding, standing below him, was lonely. Pitch rarely left his lair and few people believed in him… He could feel the empathy well up in his chest and promptly attempted to rid himself of it.

He also felt marvel in his chest as a horse appeared, one of frost, and frightened the Tooth Faerie away from the Frost Spirit.

‘Hrimfaxi…’ Jack called her. ‘Pitch Black has his Night Mares – Neat pun, by the way – and I have these, spreading the storm.’

No one showed any form of sympathy, and as Jack flew with the Eastern winds, Hrimfaxi by his side  and avoiding their attacks, Pitch tried to find a shadow on the boy to latch onto, but to no avail.

Tooth mourned over her lost tooth boxes and the ability of flight ripped from her faeries because of the frost on their wings. North denied the loss of hope and Sandy cheered him on, signing agreement when he proposed that they collect the teeth. Bunnymund nodded and all of them followed Tooth as they began to travel, leaving small trinkets and coins for the children whose teeth brought Toothiana more belief.

* * *

In the town of Burgess, Pitch had noticed Jack Frost a few times before. The spirit followed the children at times, talking to them as though they could hear him. Pitch himself never paid specific attention to just one child. It was as he and Tooth collected Jamie Bennett’s tooth that Tooth noticed a strange history to it and that he felt that he’d need to pay a bit more attention.

‘Left central incisor knocked out in a freak sledding accident. Pitch, was he frightened?’ The Bogeyman touched the tooth and could collect the trace amounts of fear still imprinted on the small calcification. Oh, yes. This child had been frightened. However…

‘Only for a short period of time. He began to feel elated, for lack of better term, once the adrenaline hit, and even more so when his tooth came out.’ He chuckled. ‘He wanted to see you, Tooth.’

She smiled and then faltered. ‘You said that you’d seen Jack here before.’

‘A few times, yes.’

‘Do you think that maybe Jack has been seen by him yet?’ The Bogeyman shook his head and the Faerie bit her lip. ‘He wouldn’t be doing this if people believed in him regularly.’

North, Sandy, and Bunny showed up, Jamie came to consciousness, and soon, Pitch and Sandy were chasing after horses made of snow.

* * *

Pitch had seen how Sandy’s attack affected the frost horse. It had scattered into delicate snowflakes of gold. His own attack seemed to mix with the frost and render it into a beautiful pattern on the roof of a nearby building.

‘If it isn’t the Gentleman of Seven O’clock.’

Pitch turned around and saw Jack Frost standing there, his eyes fixated on Pitch. When the gaze turned to focus on the frost and shadow pattern of his Frost Horse, he looked impressed.

‘You’re not really a Guardian, are you?’ Pitch scoffed.

‘No, but I am called for when they do require the help.’ The Bogeyman composed himself before asking. ‘Why are you doing this? Why steal the teeth?’

Jack looked down to the rooftop beneath his feet. ‘… Remember.’

‘What?’ Pitch never got the answer to his question as the Sandman came and began to attack the Frost Spirit.

They, the Guardians and Pitch, could not have anticipated that Jack would have had so many horses, renewing them almost constantly, especially when they began to battle in the clouds, the clouds around them condensing into ice at random intervals and impeding their movement.

No one could explain how Sandy seemed to freeze and scatter into golden snow. All they could do was attack. Pitch, however, took the role of attacking, his shadows and Jack’s white lightning clashing and sending the both of them in different directions.

He also saw the look of shock in Jack’s eyes as the Sandman disappeared before him.

* * *

Easter was tomorrow and all of the Guardians, and Pitch, were dealing with a little toddler who had found her way to the Warren. Pitch vaguely recalled seeing Jack once call her Sophie. Though she was frightened of him at first, she warmed up to him after he said her name enough times. He volunteered to take her home, assuring the others that he would return shortly.

Bunnymund’s eyes followed him, as though unsure.

* * *

He did not anticipate that Jack would be so close to his lair, spying a horse of frost flying across the stars and heading to his ruined bedframe of a lair entrance after tucking little Sophie in bed.

He did not even care to realise before that his lair was in Burgess, just as Jack’s surely was, or would be, if he ever decided to stay in one spot.

Pitch entered his lair and saw heaps of tooth boxes scattered about.

‘Frost?’

‘Black?’ the young voice countered and Pitch quickly went through the shadows, finding the boy rather quickly.

Jack sat on one of the piles and held a box in his hands.

‘Is that yours? Is that why you wanted the teeth?’

‘No and yes.’ Pitch sat down beside him.

‘You don’t remember your previous life. Nothing?’

‘Why are you even here talking to me, Pitch?’ Jack stood up and began to dance, for lack of better word, on his tiptoes through the tunnels that Pitch had created. The sprite was rather light on his feet and Pitch followed him on foot, as to not agitate him.

‘Do you find me lonely, Bogeyman? Is that why you’re talking to me? You’re feeling sorry for me?’

‘Pity helped no one.’

‘Right, because it never helped you.’ Pitch stumbled in his composure at that. ‘Did I touch a nerve or two? Yeah, I know about you. The Guardians have never let you join their little club. I guess that’s for the best, you scare children! You take away their happiness and leave them too scared to go find a new good time. You overwhelm their memories, their hope, their dreams, and their wonder in life! Did that ever happen to someone in your life?

‘Or maybe it was your fault.’

Pitch’s chest… It was burning, burning! It felt as though Jack’s words were clawing him from the inside out.

_‘Daddy, you won’t let the Nightmares get me?’_

_‘No, my little Butterfly. I won’t let them get you.’_

‘And you know what?’ Jack asked, emerging in front of Pitch, who took a step back. Why hadn’t he seen him? Was he too distraught to do notice the spirit in front of him?

‘What?’

‘They still won’t accept you.’

‘You don’t know –’

‘You make a mess of everything, you shouldn’t exist, you just ruin other people’s lives, you destroy dreams on your own agenda, you don’t constrain yourself to anything, you are greedy, you’re a monster, you should just be invisible, better yet – be dead, disappear and leave everyone’s world a little brighter. Less Black-ness.’

Pitch was soon left alone in his lair, just now noticing that the sun was already up.

The tunnels to Bunny’s warren… were splattered by sprays of chocolate, frozen to the walls.

* * *

‘We should never have trusted you!’ Bunny yelled at him, his paw in a tightly formed fist. Pitch backed away. He berated himself mentally on the way here, knowing that he should not have let Jack distract him from his mission, but it felt more painful when one, who was supposed to be his ally, rebuked him.

He disappeared, only after watching North and Tooth turn away from him as well.

* * *

In his lair, he began to gather his Nightmares, making them take back the tooth boxes that Jack had put there. What on Earth did he need them for?

Unless…

‘Onyx,’ he called, summoning his favourite Nightmare. When she approached, he patted her neck before asking if she knew where Jack had gone. She nodded and she led him through the shadows.

When they arrived at their destination – Antarctica of all places – he told her to go to the Tooth Palace and fetch one of the boxes there.

‘Look for Jack Frost’s box.’

* * *

He finally caught sight of Jack after about an hour or so in the snow and ice, Onyx delivering the tooth box to him shortly after he had given her the order. The spirit stood on a peak of ice, mumbling to himself, exasperated. The wind picked up and Pitch realised how… unconscious all of the weather seemed to be about him.

‘You think that no-one will ever believe in you, Frost.’ The boy straightened up, surprised that someone else was here. ‘But I understand.’

Ice was shot at him and Pitch barely had enough time to draw up his shadows to protect him. Jack jumped down from the peak, face contorted with fury.

‘You don’t understand anything!’ he cried, continuing to shoot a power that Pitch could only describe as ‘cold’ at the Bogeyman.

‘Oh!’ He retaliated, continuing to use the shadows as shields. ‘I don’t know what it’s like to be cast out?!’

He sent a swarm of shadows after the boy. Jack jumped into the air and sent down a flurry of ice that Pitch was barely able to counter. Smoke – or rather, a fog – surrounded them and Pitch realised that Jack truly felt alone. He didn’t think anyone could understand what he was feeling. How painful that must be…

But he’d known that already. It was why he never left his lair.

‘To not be believed in?!’

Jack held out his staff in front of him, ready to attack should Pitch strike.

The Guardians, nor any other spirit, could not have understood what it was like to be unwanted and rejected.

‘To dream of…’

Even in his dreams.

‘A family?’

Jack lowered the staff, his eyes swimming with emotion. He looked heartbroken and Pitch caught the scent of his fear – fear that Pitch was lying. The Bogeyman continued.

‘All those years in the shadows and I thought, ‘No-one else knows what this feels like,’ but now I see that I was wrong.’ Pitch extended out a hand.

‘We don’t  _have_  to be alone, Jack. I know children will believe in you, as I do in you, too.’ Jack looked down at Pitch’s hand and saw the tooth box, with the picture of a boy with brown hair, but most definitely Jack. The face was the same and even the smirk was the same, mischievous and daring.

‘My memories…’ Jack grabbed them and brought them close. In that moment, as Jack closed his eyes, it was as though the devilish child became completely serene, his whole body relaxed.

Pitch flinched as the boy launched himself at the taller man, his form shaking slightly, as though cold.

‘Thank you…’ Jack whispered.

‘You’re… You’re welcome,’ Pitch responded, in the same whispered tone. He cleared his throat and said a bit louder, ‘Why the storm?’

‘The faeries guard the teeth. If… If they can’t fly, then they wouldn’t be able to stop me when I looked for my box. You were getting in my way, so I had to… I didn’t think the Sandman…’ Jack’s voice grew quiet and Pitch felt empathy well up inside of him, that was taken over by a hint of rage.

‘And Easter?’

‘… He hates me. He’s hurt me before… He said that someone was there for him, but me? I don’t have anyone… Anyone…’

‘Who created you? How did you come into existence, with much more power than you know what to do with?’

Jack looked up at him. ‘The Man in the Moon. He… gave me my name, but that was all he ever told me, and that was a long, long time ago.’

‘When?’

‘The night I was born.’

300 years of solitude, an entire lifetime. And from the Man in the Moon?! Why would he leave this child all alone, his own creation, a  _son_ , to suffer?

‘… Pitch?’

‘Look at your memories. I’ll get you to the Tooth Palace where, hopefully, we can explain everything.’ He caught the boy in his arms and cradled him closer than he expected. He was actually quite small.

* * *

Tooth’s wings felt so heavy against her back. As she helped North to the sleigh, she mused quietly over how she hadn’t walked around like this in centuries. A shadow appeared and Pitch walked out with Jack Frost in his arms.

‘Pitch! That’s-!’

He nodded and came closer to the Guardians, kneeling and laying Jack on the ground. He explained why Jack had done wrong to them, trying to get even and regain his memories. The small version of Bunnymund, though cute, growled.

‘There’s no excuse to what he did!’ Jack flinched in his slumber, his tooth box held tightly to his chest, the golden container glowing brightly.

‘He’s a child of the Man in the Moon, Bunnymund!’ The three Guardians stopped and looked at him.

‘ _Chto_?’ North asked, his native Russian slipping into his speech.

‘Jack said that the Moon gave him his name, but that was all that he was ever told.’ Pitch looked down at Jack, who looked so serene. Hopefully, he had had a peaceful life, previous to this one.

‘Why would Manny-’

‘I don’t know, North. I’m just relating what he told me.’ All four looked up at the Moon, as though they were asking for an answer. The Moon shone just a bit brighter and then returned to normal.

Suddenly Jack sat up, gasping, eyes looking around frantically before settling on Pitch, a kind of warmth settling in the blue irises.

‘Did-did you see that?’ Pitch shook his head, but that did not stop Jack from continuing and grabbing his sleeves, trying to express everything to the Bogeyman. ‘I had a family! I had a sister!’

Tooth laid a hand on Jack’s back, trying to calm him and have contact with him should he try to attack them.

‘Jack… What happened?’ she asked. Jack turned to Tooth, surprise in his face.

‘… My sister and I… She wanted to learn to skate. We lived by the pond in Burgess and it was frozen. I taught her and she went to practice alone further into the pond’s centre. It began to crack underneath and she… She was so scared!’

Jack bit his lip before continuing. ‘I let her think of it as a game, to calm her down. I saved her and I ended up falling into the pond. I didn’t get out…’

Pitch blinked at that. Jack Frost had died..? Ghosts were rare creatures, but for the Moon to create one, and let the Winds be his servants and friends, he must have expended so much energy… Enough energy to leave him unable to communicate. He communicated this to Jack, who blinked in wonder.

‘That’s why he… He didn’t talk to me…’ Jack stood up, pulling away from Tooth and Pitch, to stare up at the Moon.

‘I saved her,’ he uttered. ‘That’s why you chose me…’

North chuckled. ‘Then perhaps Jack, you are Guardian.’

Jack turned to North. ‘Do… You don’t mean that.’

Everything was silent, until Bunnymund spoke. ‘You died for her, your sister. If… I still hold this grudge, but I don’t think that an ordinary person could have saved a girl like that… It’s a hopeful thing, to tell someone that they’ll be all right… For you to have done that, you’re a special person.

‘You could be a Guardian, especially if Manny chose you.’

Jack turned around and approached the little rabbit, petting him on the head.

‘Thanks…’

A strong wind came and left one of Jack’s horses on the same landing as the five ‘Guardians’. It came close to them, nuzzling Jack’s side.

‘No,’ Jack said firmly. The horse backed away and soon disappeared, snowflakes dancing away in the air.

‘Jack, what’s going on?’ Pitch asked, seeing Jack’s eyes widen.

‘They… They’re not listening to me any-more ’ He turned to Pitch. ‘The storm won’t stop.’


	2. Skadi and Njord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; everything comes back to the place of origin. Skadi and Njord must return home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Whatever warnings that should have been in the movie.

Jamie looked outside to the snowstorm outside. It seemed so strange, that a storm would appear on Easter. The Easter Bunny hadn’t come to bring the spring like he always did and all of his friends were saying that the Easter Bunny wasn’t real anymore. He just needed a sign.

_Please_ , he pleaded in his mind, to anything that would care to listen. _Just show me that he’s real_.

-

There were scattered lights about the globe. Without the Sandman, the Tooth Faeries, and with the failed Easter, very few children still believed in the Guardians, their locations twinkling on the globe. Pitch, strangely, felt stronger and stronger. He had called off his Nightmares and Onyx still obeyed him, unlike with what happened with Jack and Hrimfaxi.

They had split up, Pitch accompanying Jack to Burgess. They couldn’t leave him alone again, just in case that he hadn’t told the truth. Jack had shrugged and turned to fly off, when Pitch had grabbed him by the arm and surrounded them in shadows.

Arriving on top of the Bennett home, Pitch observed the gentle snowfall, one that would increase should the Frost Horses come in a moment’s notice. Jack looked up at the clouds and closed his eyes. The Nightmare King’s eyes widened as the snow stopped. He looked to Jack, who opened his eyes and looked back.

‘I think everyone’s had enough snow now.’ Jack’s voice trailed off and Pitch could feel some fear radiating off of him.

‘Everyone needs you now.’ Jack looked up at the Bogeyman. He opened his mouth to speak before hesitating. When he opened his mouth again, he spoke.

‘Do _you_ need me now?’ Pitch must have had a strange expression on his face after hearing that, as Jack snapped his head back to the sky and muttered about how hard it was to get the clouds to leave too.

‘Do you need me, Jack?’ Jack bit his lip and turned, coming closer to Pitch and slowly placing a hand on the man’s chest. There would have been a heartbeat there.

‘I want  you… I’m pretty sure that’s not the same as needing, but it’s what I have.’ Pitch could hear the words beneath the words uttered, coated with fear.

_I want you, but it’s not my right to want. No-one has ever wanted me!_

‘Jack-’

‘Let’s get Jamie.’

‘No.’ Jack turned to Pitch in disbelief. ‘Not like that. This is your job, Jack. You caused this, now you must fix it.’

Pitch was transfixed by the blue eyes staring back at him, the eyes that reminded him of the seas, and made him long for them.

Jack went inside and Pitch could remember being in the water, cold as ice, and feeling at peace.

However, that was a long time ago.

-

North growled, holding as tightly as he could to the reins of his sleigh. Only one light left in the world and it was the one that Pitch and Jack went to go see. Hopefully they would get there before anything happened to the child…

Jamie.

-

Jamie was holding a stuffed rabbit, talking to it, wanting an answer as to why he, the Easter Bunny, hadn’t come. He didn’t mind the slight chill in the air that resulted from Jack opening the window.

‘Anything,’ Jamie whispered. ‘Anything at all?’

Jack bit his lip, knowing that he had caused the boy’s doubt, and it pained him. Jamie let the rabbit fall off of the bed, out of his gentle, hopeful grasp.

‘I knew it.’

Jack wanted to scream, but he knew it would solve nothing. He had to make Jamie believe. It was the only way that the storm would fully stop. Hrimfaxi had told him that Sneguroschka and the Snow God, along with the other snows spirits abound, were guarding their territories against his storm, though they were growing tired. He couldn’t let this continue now.

Jamie looked up, hearing a dull squeaking from his window. Frost had covered it and patterns were appearing in it. A pattern in the shape of an Easter Egg…

‘He’s real…’ he whispered, all of the air in his lungs stagnant. Frost appeared in another panel of his window and a bunny emerged.

He stepped closer and the rabbit actually came out of the window, hopping about the room and around Jamie’s bed. He laughed at that, happy to see something fun and cheery. Hopping onto his bed, he tried to catch the small creature, jumping to touch it. He almost did when it burst into a flurry of snowflakes.

‘Snow?’ He watched a flake fall onto the tip of his nose and vaguely remembered a saying that his mother had said. All sayings had a source right?

‘Jack Frost,’ he realised, connecting the thoughts in his head.

‘Did he just say..?’ he heard. It was an older boy’s voice.

‘Jack Frost?’ he asked, looking around.

‘He said it again. He said… You said…’

Turning around, Jamie felt his jaw drop. There was a boy in his room, clad in a blue hooded sweater and brown, tanned leather pants. A staff was resting against Jamie’s dresser, one end curved.

‘Jack Frost!’

‘You said it again!’ the boy, Jack Frost, cried out. ‘But that’s me, Jack Frost! You said my name.’ He came close to Jamie, an anguished look of hope on his face. It was as though he was scared that Jamie wasn’t really seeing him.

‘Wait, can you hear me?’

Jamie nodded, still flabbergasted.

‘Can… Can you see me?’ Jamie nodded again and he knew that Jack couldn’t be the one causing the storm outside because of how his eyes seemed to fill up at the corners with tears, a smile spread across his face.

‘He sees me. He sees me!’ Jack flipped onto Jamie’s desk and Jamie found his voice again.

‘You just made it snow!’

‘I know!’

‘In my room!’ he emphasized and Jack repeated himself, smiling widely.

‘I… Then what about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Faerie and-‘

‘Real, real!’ Jack went and picked up Jamie’s rabbit. He held it out to Jamie, continuing. ‘Every one of us is real.’

Jamie grabbed it from Jack and smiled and then bit his lip.

‘What about the storm outside? Was that someone else’s fault?’

Jack paused and looked down, not daring to meet Jamie’s gaze.

‘… I didn’t think that the storm would stop listening to me.’ Blue eyes rose to meet with brown. ‘I’ll stop it. I promise you that.’

Jamie smiled again. Then both boys turned to hear something outside. Pitch appeared in the window. Jamie stared up at him with wide eyes.

‘The Bogeyman.’

Pitch nodded. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll stop the storm.’

Jack blinked at him. We. ‘What’s up?’

‘It’s North.’

-

Jamie ran outside to where Jack, the Bogeyman, and the other Guardians stood. He excitedly ran to North, amazed at the fact that Santa Claus was outside of his house. He looked so tired.

‘The last light,’ he heard Santa say as he approached. Light?

‘Wow, it is you! I mean, it is you!’ He held out his hand and touched the sleeve of Santa’s robe. They were so big and warm, it reminded Jamie of when their Christmas parties with gingerbread men and sugared plums that Dad would bring home from office parties.

‘I knew it wasn't a dream!’ He turned to Jack in such happiness , smiling at the older boy. He turned and smiled at the Bogeyman, who returned it warmly. He ran to Jack and hugged the boy about the waist, feeling coldness begin to take his body. It wasn’t unpleasant – it felt like a refreshing wind after all of the snow that had been outside these last few days. Jack bent down and returned his hug, a bit more loosely, as though Jack was afraid of enveloping Jamie in his cold… and as though this was a dream and Jack didn’t want him to disappear.

‘Jack, he sees you…’ Santa said, amazed. He and the Tooth Faerie had warm smiles on their faces, smiles of pride. Jack lifted his head and saw the pride there, smiling at them.

‘Hey, where’s Bunny?’ he asked. Pitch watched over to the sleigh while North explained.

‘Easter took its toll on all of us… Bunny, most of all.’

‘Oh no…’ They heard Pitch say, the Nightmare King chuckling a bit. Out of the sleigh came a little bunny.

Jamie laughed. ‘ _That’s_ the Easter bunny?’ He walked over.

‘ _Now_ somebody sees me,’ the bunny complained, his voice still very deep and almost unfitting of the little body.

Jamie, thrown off by the deep voice and remembering how Santa mentioned something affecting all of them. ‘What happened to him?’ he asked, scratching under the bunny’s chin. ‘He’s all cute. Was he different before?’

Bunnymund pushed the child away gently before turning to Pitch and Jack. ‘Did you two tell him to say that?’ He raised his paws, ready for a little fight.

‘No,’ Jamie protested. ‘Actually, Jack told me that you were real, and the Bogeyman too! Just when I was starting to think that maybe you weren’t…’

Green eyes turned themselves to focus on Pitch, then to Jack. ‘How?’

Jamie described the bunny made of frost flying around in his room.

‘He made you believe? In me?’ Bunny hopped off of the sleigh and over to sit a few feet from Jack, smiling up at the young spirit.

He didn’t see the way Jack’s eyes seemed to grow wetter. A large boom in the sky came over the group and snow came down again, lightly. North, Tooth, and Bunny hurried Jamie inside, running from the cold as it picked up speed.

‘I’ll handle this,’ Jack told Pitch, beginning to float. A warm – almost burning, due to the temperature difference – hand wrapped around his upper arm.

‘My shadows have beaten your ice before.’ He called for Onyx.

She did not come.

Jack pointed up at the sky. ‘Birds of a feather flock together…’

Of course, that explained everything. One of the clouds lowered itself to the ground and all of Burgess was covered in a thick fog, only two figures visible aside from the two spirits.

Hrimfaxi and Onyx.

‘Seems like the dark and cold go really well together…’ Jack mumbled, holding out his staff. Pitch gathered shadows in his hands. That would have been why he kept growing stronger – the shadows were seeking energy, energy that Jack’s horses were already gathering. The fear that everyone felt of going outside, dying in the cold, had helped them.

They needed him no longer.

‘Get Jamie out of here,’ Jack said. ‘We’ll handle this.’

We.

-

The shadows and ice held up their own quite well, managing to fling Pitch and Jack back down to the Earth, the bodies slamming hard against the pavement of an alley way.

‘Jack! Pitch!’ Pitch lifted his head, seeing Jamie Bennett run towards them. Jack groaned beside him, and the Bogeyman felt concern well up within him. This lonely sprite had wanted, and he was paying the price for risking such an innocent emotion.

‘Jack, are you injured?’

Blue eyes opened, and Pitch could vaguely sense that same want from earlier, the want of Pitch.

‘I’m okay.’

An orb of shadow and ice, small in size, came hurdling at the frost sprite and Jack pushed Pitch away, dodging the attack. Jamie and the other Guardians cried out as it landed not too far from them. Another orb came towards Pitch, the Bogeyman barely able to bring up a shield of Fearlings to protect himself.

He could feel some power waning, however. He wouldn’t be able to block the now continuous attack, orbs striking his shield, melting into it and refreezing to make cracks in it. The weight was heavy and he could hear the shadows whisper to him. Why was he resisting? He and Jack could rule if they would only listen to what Hrimfaxi and Onyx were demanding. The voiceless horses were giving them what they wanted – belief!

He could find his daughter again, with this much power. She would come home. She would embrace him and welcome her father, invite him to stay a while and to create butterflies. His butterfly-

‘Hey! Stop! _Lad ham være!_ ’

Jack’s voice pierced through the voices, a cold hand making contact with his shoulder, and Pitch let himself relax and tense again, just enough energy left to send some of the partially melted orbs back up towards the horses, destroying the cloud of blue and black that they were perched upon.

The panicked neighing was akin to children screaming, and Pitch could empathize with their pain. Every child that he had captured and changed was screaming, for they were not wanted in that state any longer.

‘Pitch, what happened?’ Pitch turned to the voice and saw North looking at him worriedly.

‘… Just a thought. That’s all.’

‘It must have been strong thought, then.’ He could only nod.

Jack let his hand leave Pitch’s shoulder and stayed with North and Pitch, leaving Tooth and Bunnymund to keep Jamie warm. The child had grabbed his coat, yet not his shoes.

‘Pitch,’ Jack started. ‘I have an idea-‘

‘What is it then?’ He didn’t want to hear those voices again. If Jack hadn’t cut through the noise-

‘You won’t like it, I think.’

-

Skadi… Jack remembered celebrating her, many years ago when he was alive. Father brought in the fresh game from the mountains, and they honoured the beast like a fallen warrior. It gave its life so the Frost family could survive, as warriors defending the home did.

Would he be celebrated if the plan worked?

He couldn’t really care any-more.

He just wanted Jamie, the little boy that reminded him of his sister, to be safe and happy.

Jack only thought of this as he stood on the pond from which he had been birthed. Three hundred years ago, he held only the fear of a new-born, in awe of everything about him.

He turned to Pitch, who was warily glancing down at the frozen pond as he walked across it to Jack.

‘What is your plan, aside from getting the others to safety?’

Jack exhaled sharply and inhaled the same way.

‘Pitch. Can you promise me something?’

‘What?’

Pitch saw Jack’s lips move, but the words were lost in the din of frost and shadows hailing down from the sky at the pair.

Jack held up his staff at the objects falling, saying things in a language that he could not understand, the same language as before when the mares were attacking Pitch, and they momentarily stopped, and Pitch could see that the same thing that happened earlier with his shield was happening again.

Jack could stop the attacks, because Jack was the one who began it.

And the shadows didn’t like that. Pitch could see the fire that they held in their now misshapen eyes. They would kill if they had to.

As the cloud came down sharply and Jack simply closed his eyes, Pitch could feel his fear.

The fear that no-one would remember him for what he was, that he’d be alone in the dark for ever once the cloud took him. He’d be lost in the dark and he’d lose himself. He would forget that he had met Jamie, the first one to believe in him and the first one that he had cared for, especially when he had taken him for the sled ride and gave him a chance to meet the Tooth Faerie. He would be remembered as the spirit that ruined it all.

Pitch would forget him.

Pitch never wanted him.

Jack felt lips crash against his own, his eyes shooting open and seeing Pitch’s face intimately close to his. And as the shadows met their bodies, their bodies growing colder and colder and the ice cracking beneath them from the contradicting heat of the shadows, Jack could feel fear from Pitch.

Fear that Jack would never know how much Pitch wanted him…

How much he needed him, his empathy, his gentle and slow heartbeat…

Jack closed his eyes as the water enveloped them, a sharp and piercing splash invading their eardrums. The shadows were screaming and Jack could sense a warmth, a glowing warmth, and if he had opened his eyes, he would have seen that the sand that touched their skins was becoming gold again, rising above the water and forming a man.

Pitch pulled away from Jack and he could see the blue eyes, gazing down at him longingly, enrapturing. A strange sensation filled them both – he could sense from Jack’s fear of the unknown – and the Bogeyman hushed the boy, holding him.

‘I won’t leave you alone,’ he would have said, but Jack seemed to relax against him anyway, as though saying,

‘I won’t leave you either.’

-

Sandy, having returned from the dark Sand, searched for the other Guardians, letting his Dream Sand spread to the Winds and feeling their belief and happiness again. When the others found him first, he greeted them with a warm smile.

‘Where are Jack and Pitch?’

Sandy frowned, ushering Jamie to go back inside. He made a figure of a mermaid with his Sand above his head, and let it dissolve.

The Guardians made it to the pond and soon were aghast as they saw the bodies of the two spirits, embracing, and slowly disappearing, becoming foam like that of the sea.

The sun was finally up, and the day was growing warm again.

-

They could feel themselves seep deeper into the Earth, collecting in a mass that was hidden completely from the sunlight.

‘It is lonely here, but I’m glad to be here with you.’

‘Yes.’

‘Let us leave this place.’

‘And go where?’

‘To the sea. It is nice and dark there, and when we reach the surface, we can taste the fresh air.’ The younger spirit would have smiled if their body was still whole and separate.

‘I like the dark, because it’s cold and protects me from the Sun. The Sun would melt me. Will you be with me still?’

‘As Skadi chose Njord, I would be with you even if you did not want me. I love you.’

 ‘… Meet me where we met, in the caverns. There is water there and it is cool enough.’ The spirit of fear would have felt his love’s embrace, but they were so wrapped up in each other that they did not feel their unity, their One-ness, make its way to the sea.

Soon they made it to the air, and they were free! Their elements were not so compatible and stable, so they were separate again, but Jack and Pitch had to only look at each other and all was fine.

-

The Guardians met a bit more regularly, giving reports on the weather’s behaviour and the children’s dreams.

‘I noticed something the other day,’ Tooth reported only months after the attack on Easter.

The other Guardians felt a sense of wonder as she reported, ‘ There was frost spreading on the ground in Burgess. I followed it and I saw Jack. Pitch was with him, as the sun had yet to rise. They were holding hands and I could have sworn for a moment, that they looked like the Gods of Old. They came back.

‘They were smiling. They weren’t lonely any-more.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what?
> 
> I wasn't going to let them live >:)
> 
> Fun fact: Bunnies are purebred, rabbits are mixed. ‘Bunny’ would be the appropriate term, as I’m pretty sure that Pookas didn’t breed with other species of lagomorph.
> 
> Lad ham være! – Let him go! (Danish)
> 
> Skadi – According to one source, she is the Norse Goddess of independence, death, hunting and skiing. Scotland and Scandinavia were named after her; the English words shadow, skulduggery and shade came from her name. According to another source, Skadi is also the Goddess of Winter. She is represented at the Snow Queen and the Ice Princess in the stories of Hans Christian Anderson.
> 
> The Little Mermaid – In the original by H. C. Anderson, the mermaid becomes sea foam after the princes wedding. Her sisters traded her hair to the sea witch to get a knife. The knife, plunged into the prince’s heart, would let her become a mermaid again. The little mermaid could not find it in her heart to hurt the prince, or break his wife’s heart, and became sea foam. She became something akin to an angel.
> 
> Njord – Who’s this guy? The husband of Skadi. He rules the Seas. Why bring up this guy?
> 
> “Darkness. That’s the first thing I remember.” The Seas could just refer to the oceans, but I’ll fudge it and say that Njord also ruled over smaller bodies of water, including ponds. It’s dark in that pond, so it’s a combination of Skadi and Njord, ice and shadows.
> 
> Fun fact: Skadi chose Njord to be her husband by accident. Oops. Curse Njord’s pretty feet. But they were not comfortable in each other’s homes, so they live separately. I couldn’t do that to Jack and Pitch though.

**Author's Note:**

> Hrimfaxi – Frost Horse of the God of Night (Norse legend)
> 
> Gentleman of Seven O’clock (Le Bonhomme Sept-Heures) – The Bogeyman (Quebec)
> 
> ‘To dream of… a family?’ – French script for the scene. I like this line better :)
> 
> Chto? – What?


End file.
